NCLM.ORG 19 Deep Ties: Senator Natalie Murdock Has Lived Public Service end. You learn about seniority very quickly here. You have got to have someone on that (budget) conference committee who cares about the issues you care about. And she fought for it, it remained, and it is in the state budget. I’ve definitely been able to work with my colleagues (across the aisle) on a number of issues. There’s a way. NM: And I think, unfortunately, we focus on this perceived rural-urban divide—I mean, I am a senator of an urban district; I’ll be gaining Chatham County (through redistricting), which I’m thrilled about. What I’ve found is there are still a lot of similarities. A lot of overlap. Particularly when it comes to socio-economic status. If you do not make a lot of money, your challenges are not that different from someone that lives in a rural community. When you look at broadband access, a lot of those dead zones that we have in our county, we still have those in Durham County, so we can relate to that in the northeast or the far west. Food insecurity. Those are issues we can relate with. There are still a lot of urban school districts where a lot of kids are on free and reduced lunch. So, what I’ve found is finding those commonalities with my colleagues serving in rural area to say, “Guess what, that’s an issue for Durham County as well.” I really come at it from a perspective of being very practical. And just finding what it is that we agree on. We were able to provide Medicaid coverage for women 12 months post-partum. And back to something we can all agree on. If we can agree on when someone decides that they want to have a baby, let’s work so that mother stays alive, and that child is born healthy. And I find that is something I can agree with my colleagues on. So, I’ll continue to do a lot of work around maternal health. And in that final budget we were able to provide Medicaid for women 12 months post-partum (versus the previous limit of 60 days). So that’s a huge, huge win. All of those were issues I’ve been working on with the majority party. What else would you like local officials to know? NM: Just for them to continue to reach out to their legislators and let us know the impact that legislation will have on them, locally. Sometimes we hear about those concerns and it’s too late. I would definitely encourage mayors, city council members, county commissioners to be really proactive, bring those issues to us early on. Every area is different. In Durham, we have weekly meetings with our mayor, our chair of the county commission, our school board members. Reach out to your legislators early and often. I would also say work with someone to get access to the legislative calendar and make sure that, before bill filing opens, when we really have the opportunity to file legislation (as requested by a locality) … we can’t do it if we don’t know about it. Lobby your legislators. We want to advocate for you. I will say the League of Municipalities and the NC Association of County commissioners do a great job keeping us informed. Reach out to your legislators early and often. Work with someone to get access to the legislative calendar and make sure that, before bill filing opens, when we really have the opportunity to file legislation … we can’t do it if we don’t know about it. We want to advocate for you.
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